Market Stats

According to Gartner less customers in mature markets are thinking of buying a tablet in the next 12 months-- in fact, just 17% of survey respondents plan to do so, and such numbers will only fall in 2016.

The survey covers 19000 consumers in the US, UK, France, China, Brazil and India, and shows less than 1 in 5 users in mature markets plan to purchase or upgrade a tablet.

"Unless new compelling innovation or incentives to upgrade tablets are created, the churn of the mature installed base will continue to fall," the analyst says. "The worst-case scenario is that many tablet users will never upgrade or buy a new tablet as phablets and/or two-in-one convertible PCs (both with larger screen) envelop the benefits of a tablet. This scenario would result in real household penetration for tablets falling under 40% in mature markets."

Global smartphone shipments reach 355.2 million units in Q3 2015 IDC reports-- a 6.8% increase over the 332.6m units shipped in Q3 2014, making the second highest quarter of shipments according to analyst record.

"The vendor landscape and product offerings are really unique at the moment as many markets are seeing consumers become more aware of alternative buying options when it comes to paying for their smartphone," IDC says. "In mature and subsidised markets, we now have a wide range of operators offering equipment installation plans (EIP), as well as early trade-in options. At the same time the number of unlocked/off-contract offerings has increased significantly and it's slowly starting to resonate with consumers. Within these markets these moves will put pressure directly on Android OEMs with offerings that are greater than $500."

The global tablet installed base becomes the "next unexpected victim" in 2016 ABI Research reports, as shipments of larger mobile devices decline after the promising early sales seen in 2010 and 2011.

“The global installed base of branded tablets will peak around 373 million units at the close of 2015,” the analyst says. “Led by N. America at 48% of the installed base, the operating system mix is expected to be more balanced with 50% powered by Android, while 42% will use iOS."

Gartner reports global Q2 2015 smartphone sales total 330 million units with 13.5% Y-o-Y growth-- the slowest since 2013, in part caused by poor performance in the world's biggest smartphone market, China.

"While demand for lower-cost 3G and 4G smartphones continued to drive growth in emerging markets, overall smartphone sales remained mixed region by region in Q2 2015," the analyst says. "Emerging Asia/Pacific (excluding China), E. Europe and MEA were the fastest-growing regions, driven by good performance from Chinese and local vendors. By contrast, smartphone sales in China fell for the first time year over year, recording a -4% decline."

IDC reports the W. European tablet market reaches stability of sorts in Q2 2015 as shipments reach 7.5 million with 1.2% Y-o-Y decline-- the softest since the downturn started at the beginning of 2014.

Leading to such results is the combination of weak consumer demand for tablets and growing commercial interest in 2-in-1 devices. As such, regular tablet shipments are down by -4.4% Y-o-Y while 2-in-1s see 71% Y-o-Y growth, even if 2-in-1 volume remains relatively small with overall share reaching 7.3% of the total Q2 2015 market.

“The most notable new 2-in-1 model is probably the Microsoft Surface 3, a smaller and more affordable version of Surface Pro 3, but other new 2-in-1s were introduced by well-established international players as well as several local or sub-regional vendors," the analyst says. "The latter not only contributed to broaden the 2-in-1 offering but, thanks to the strength of their brand at a local level and the usually lower price points of their products, also helped boost the volume of the market for detachable devices, where their share jumped sequentially from below 1% to over 4%.”

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